By AMBER DILLEY
GLASGOW — A local long-time judge has been named a Distinguished Citizen.
Former Barren Circuit Judge Ben Dickinson was awarded the Distinguished Citizen Award through the Boy Scouts a few weeks ago.
“It’s a very nice statue,” he said. “It’s a boy scout in an old-style uniform with an old campaign hat.”
Back in 1988, after being a boy scout himself for more than 30 years, he and the rest of a group organized the Rotary Scout Reservation Scout Foundation Inc., a charitable foundation, to take care of the camp grounds — now about 210 acres near Skaggs Creek in Temple Hill.
“I went to camp for the first time out there in 1953 and I’ve been a scout ever since,” Dickinson. “I’ve gone out there many, many times in the last 50 years. I love the camp and it’s a great place for kids around here.”
He loved the place so much, he and a group created the foundation, which has provided many upgrades for the park.
“We built the lake out there — a four-acre lake for the scouts — we’ve built a three-sided log shelter, refurbished the lower cabin, the upper cabin. It’s like the Taj Mahal of camping shelters,” he said. “We’ve also got a picnic shelter with a fire place. One troop told me we had the best kept secret in our scout camp. It’s a great place for this community and it’s used nearly every weekend by some group.”
Dickinson was the first person many on the award committee thought of when discussing recipients for this year.
“He’s had a life dedicated to public service, both professionally and with the scouting program,” said Jeff Rock, secretary of the Shawnee Trails Council in Owensboro. “He’s probably as responsible as anybody for the Rotary Scout Camp and that development that serves all scouts and other young people. He very much epitomizes values that scouting tries to teach.”
Glasgow was one of the first cities in the country to have a scout troop, back in 1912, but the lessons learned are still the same, Dickinson said.
“I was in Troop 214 and I think what we learned most was just to do some thing for your community,” he said. “We retain that. All of us want to give something back. We learned how to take care of ourselves and how to take care of others. We want to make sure that other kids have the same opportunities. That’s what it’s all about. We’ve all retained that through the years.”
Boy Scouts of Glasgow will be celebrating 100 years in Glasgow in 2012.
